Two Pound British Coins

Back in 2011-12, I was in Reading, UK for about 50 weeks or so. This was perhaps my second visit. The first one was in 2007 to Birmingham and London for 3 months.

Anyway, as I was there for a year I was getting my salary in GBP as the official currency in this country is British Pound. As I received change from the stores, I observed that the £2 coins had some interesting designs on them. As I liked them, I started collecting them without knowing the significance behind the designs. At the end of my onsite stint, I collected about 15 different designs of them (as I counted them today).

Today, I met my best friend's aunt who a philatelist and numismatist, a good one and is well organised in her work. I was having a look at her collection of Indian coins and notes and we got talking about the changes in the designs of the notes, their colour, etc. As we drifted from coins to stamps, I got a call from home and I had to rush back for lunch. As I was leaving, she tried to persuade me to start collecting coins or notes and see for their patterns, colours etc. She also mentioned to start a collection of US quarters, I think. That's when I remembered that I'd collected a few £2 coins.

Reached home and after a bit of search and asking mum about it, I finally found them safe and neatly tucked away in some corner. I then did a bit of Google search and the Royal Mint website gave me a lot of information regarding the Two Pound Coin Designs and Specifications. I then sorted my collection and realised that I have about 15 unique designs out of the several they have. OK, let me be honest it’s 18 as the History of Technological Achievement series was issued between 1997 and 2012 and I have 4 different years of issue (1998, 1998, 2004, and 2011).

I then realised that there was a lot more that could have been collected, but back then I was not a numismatist (nor a a serious philatelist). After going through the aforementioned site, I also saw that they had unique and several designs for other coins as well. So if I had paid a bit more attention or did some check back then, I could have collected the £1, 50p. Not sure if the 20p, 10p, 5p, 2p, 1p also had different designs, as I didn’t have the patience to read the website and later I got a bit nostalgic and moist in the eyes reminiscing the good old fun days.

At the end, I also read that they are now changing the design of the £1 coin, wherein they are moving from the traditional round design to a 12 sided coin effective from March 2017. So this means that the The Last Round Pound will be the last of the circular £1 coins. A tad disappointing, isn't it?

So I guess I still have a lot to collect and it now seems impossible to continue collecting them all given that I'm in India since 2012 and I don't see myself in the UK for any reason given that they are trying to drive out all immigrants and the issue of visas to work in the UK is now a dream for any Indian.

But at the end, I did enjoy my stint (read: Why UK? for no reason.... No seriously. Read it. Really. Read it.) and I'm proud that I did collect something then different of what I thought was crazy but today, this is a sweet memory for me. Serious numismatists may scoff at me saying that is this not the right way to collect coins as these are used ones and the way to collect them is in mint or proof condition etc. May be, but to me this is how I started and if I were to start the actual way it may cost me a lot more, but I'm happy with it. God knows when I shall get the next opportunity to go there, but until then I shall retain all these coins and hopefully I shall continue them some way in some time.

Of course, I could use some of my network and seek their help in continuing and completing the collection, but I don’t want to be a bit of a bother to them. Also, it may take a while to make them understand what I need and what I have.

Thought of sharing this small piece of information as I'm now somewhat into philately and in no way numismatics. I collect them, that's it.

Vinay Gokula

Bangalore

13-Sept-2016 1936 IST